I jogged 3 miles today. That seemed like such a long distance to run, but looking at the schedule I am using, 3 miles is nothing. Tomorrow I get a day off on the schedule that I am very excited about. Then Wednesday I'm back to 2 miles, then Thursday and Friday are 3 mile routes. I love how I feel after jogging. I'm always in a better mood and my body feels cleansed.

Tonight Tim and I went to the all-district orchestra concert. There were 10 kids from my classroom that played, and then lots of youth kids from church. I always enjoy making a night with Tim and attending programs that the youth are involved in.

After having such nice weather on Wednesday and going for a jog I am really bummed that we are covered in snow again. It's 34*, feeling like 23* with the wind blowing at 17-23mph, and I just got back from jogging. All day long I have just been itching to go jogging again. I'd been complaining thinking there is no way I could go jogging, when finally (I guess Tim got tired of my whining) I was told, "Just go, you can do it." So I mapped out a 2 mile route a little different than our 1.5 mile loop around our neighborhood. Turns out Google map was a little wrong though, and the side road that goes in a loop I was going to jog around, ended up being a dead end, so I just mapped out what I jogged and I only did 1.9 miles. Disappointed, but I did go for 20 minutes, and I'm happy about that.

Walking home for my cool down I felt like such a rebel being from Texas and so determined to go jogging even though the ground is covered in snow except for what has been plowed on the roads. Maybe it's just Spring fever. I can't wait to see our apple trees in bloom again!

I turned 25 today! My class asked yesterday if I was going to take the day off, but I told them no. I kind of wish I was there all last week so I could have taken today off. Oh well. Thank you to everyone who sent birthday cards. I put them all on my desk at school. That gave me good days looking at them.

This evening Tim and I tried out the new restaurant in town, Whiskey Creek. There is finally a place around with good bbq! We ordered an appetizer, split a full rack of ribs, and got a dessert on the house and sung "Happy Birthday" to. Our waitress was super nice. Tim got me some gloves for when we start biking when the weather gets nice. I went jogging yesterday in shorts 'cause it was in the 60s! I did 3 miles on a new route I mapped out. And guess what...tomorrow we're expecting so much snow that the schools are expecting a 2 hour late start tomorrow. No lie. Will it ever stop!?

After dinner Tim and I rented a couple movies and watched "Bee Movie" tonight. It was really good. And I got a nice surprise in the middle of it... Jon called! That was the only thing I really wanted for my birthday, and I got it. Thank you God! I also got to talk to my Mom, Dad and Katelin. We're trying to figure out when Tim and I will get to go to Texas this summer. I'm really excited!

I need to get some rest. I left school this afternoon without setting up completely for tomorrow, so I have a few things to do in the morning still. Tomorrow will be a good day. The students have math, and two tests tomorrow, then lunch and we leave for a field trip for the rest of the day. Good day to have after my birthday!

I have subbed 4 weeks, and have 3 left. I am getting really worn out. I had to leave early Thursday and take Friday off this past week because I have been worn so thin. The academic part is good, I'm struggling with being the one the students come to when they let a rumor or whatever drama is going on to explode and then they tell me about it. I need to learn how to not take anything personal. I care for the students, but I am empathizing too much with them. I need to take their problems and hand it back to them, to teach them how to handle their problems. Pray that God will give me the strength to finish up this position. And pray that I will sleep extremely well every night so I get all the rest I can.

My mind has been so wrapped around this classroom that I haven't had much time to think of the girls in my small group, which I hate. I love seeing these girls every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening, but they deserve more of my attention than just then.

God blessed me with a great break this weekend. Last night Tim and I went down to the city to watch Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. I won a free viewing of it for our youth group, but the movie isn't lined up to come to our town, so Tim and I previewed it before deciding to promote it and bring it to town. Tim blogged about it, and we figured since it originally wouldn't be coming to town, it's worth taking advantage of my winning and bring it here.

We spent the night at Dan and Maggie's and hung out there all day. David and Adrienne were out doing a half marathon, so we got to play with not only Ruby and Titus, but Noah also. Maggie and I got to go to David's Bridal to search for a dress for her for Glory's wedding. That was pretty fun, then we had dinner when we got back, with David and Adrienne there.

School was canceled today from all the hype about the snow storm that hit. We got maybe half of the snow we were expecting. I enjoyed a day off anyways though. How I miss sleeping in half of the week.

Tim and I just relaxed around the house. It was super windy all day, so we didn't go play outside. Instead we stayed in and played cards, xbox, and Tim did the dishes! I have been wanting to try to make a snow cone using real snow, so I made a small one, but my syrup seemed kind of old from last summer. Instead I had fun writing in the snow.

Exciting news lately that I'll blog probably tomorrow on. Isabelle Mae was born Wednesday. She is such a beautiful baby. And I just got word that our friend Amanda just went into labor. So tomorrow we will hopefully get to go visit and see Russell for the first time. I'll post pictures of that later. What a great week!

Tim and I had a great weekend with 14 students and 2 other adults down in Minneapolis. We went down Friday night, spent some time in worship with other Evangelical Covenant youth groups, then did missions work on Saturday. Each youth group is split up and sent to various places around the city to work. Our group went to Bridging Incorporated. It's a place that helps families in transition. Such as people coming over from other countries who only have the clothes on their back. This place gets donations from businesses that mainly do furniture, and then turns around and lets families do a shopping spree and get all the furniture they need for their home.

Saturday we helped clean inside and out, and also build furniture. Mainly book shelves and small dressers. It was nice to get to know the students better, and some of them for the first time.